the vynsane asylum

I haven't seen it yet, Chux. Christmas shopping has tapped me out..... I haven't had new books for almost a month. Going to be a pricey trip next time. How often is "too often" in terms of killing Magneto? Jesus......

I liked how Scotty ripped off an optic blast POINT BLANK in Magneto's FACE. OUCH.


Azazel turned out to be not much of an arch villain. Shucks. I'm just not feeling threatened by arch villains in comics lately. The Red Skull was about as nasty as they've been lately. Is it just me getting older and more jaded or are they losing their potentcy?

Quentin Quire was about the nastiest thing I've seen for some time, and I wouldn't even go so far as calling him "super". The Red Skull HAS been bad lately, same with Victor Von Doom. Magneto was a little over the top, but Im just reading NewX 150 tonight.

Okay, I went on a bit of a reading binge. First off, the bad:

Draco: Conclusion. Man, would anyone have said this storyline would finish on such a flat note? Crikey, the subplot with Juggernaut outdid this mess for interest, action, plausability, you name it since the third issue. This was meant to be a huge revelation story - the secret of Kurt's lineage revealed once and for all. I would have made "The Draco" a four parter, containing much briefer glimpses of Sam and Cain. The next 4 issues could have been devoted to the fall out from Draco, Cain in Vancouver and then the subsequent trial. The art in the last Draco issue looked like a joke. I seriously couldn't get over how bad it was compared to the first couple of dark and gritty issues.

Here's how the conclusion to that story SHOULD have gone:

DO: Have a final, tense confrontation between Azazel and Kurt, making him choose between his demonic biology and his learned "Xavierist-Good Samaritanism". Ideally, throw Azazel's or even Mystique's life in the balance, so his choice (to save her, to let her die, to let Azazel fall into a forever-closing dimensional portal, you name it) reflects his choice to be a good man rather than a demon. This was totally disregarded. No tension = no trial = Kurt doesn't grow or change at all as a result of this "pivotal" story (for that particluar character, anyway).

DONT: give up on the story half way, letting it peter-out in favor of the better Juggernaut story.

DO: Make sure the art stays constant through each story arc. If not by the same artist, at least make sure the finished product is cohesive.

DON'T: put the final approval on some 6th grader's inks the last issue of an important story, inks that cheapen the whole feel of the final book. The first issues in this arc were dark and gritty. This issue looked like Power Pack. Fuck it.

NOW, ON WITH THE GOOD!

Trial of Juggernaut - not bad, I didn't need the obligatory slug-fest between the Juggies, and didn't understand how that kid (NOTE: whom I don't recall in any issue I've read hurting animals near the Mansion.... where's the editor's footnote on that - JJ) got ahold of the armor, or how he ever managed to get it to work for him that well. I did prefer Garney's art, though it looked a little rushed. His Rhino looked pretty cool on the splash page. Jesus.

PLANET X: CONCLUSION

Good story. Too bad I spoiled it for myself, and too bad everything old is new again. Im of the opinion Wolverine found out he was being turned into a hound, which drove him batty. Excellent, and not belaboured. I didn't see that coming. Fantomex is pretty Firefly-like in terms of coolness. Great looking character. I would have preferred to see someone else bite the big one, but it's all apparently done for a reason, as we find out in....

HERE COMES THE FUTURE PART 1

Great art. The new computer age fits Silvestri to a T. His art always looked a little scratchy to me, but he approaches Jim Lee levels of cool facial expressions in this first issue now that the computer can sort out the color separations a little more cleanly.

And I still have to read issue 1 of "She Sleeps with Angels" before I'm caught up. The art looks better again, though. Not minding the whole Japanese thing as a break here and there.

Just rackin' up the posts, Bitches. How you like me now?

Lies with Angels: Larocca's art was just beautiful. I really like his work. Very cool new costumes on Angel and Paige, their overall "look" was cool. Good story too, this could shape up.

Okay, again I'm cleaning up my reading pile. I just read "New" X-Men 157 - 160, and you know what? It blew. It absolutely blew. I think that Chuck Austen is Marvel's "We need someone to write filler stories for a few months, you can have action, but don't do anything noteworthy, okay?" guy. He's like that on everything.

Now I have about 13 issues of Uncanny to read and a few old Wolverines and my X-Pile will be cleared up.

It's definitely an ebb for the X-titles right now. Peter Milligan's first stroy arc was so boring I didn't even bother to read the final installment. They just introduced a hot little mutant to start trouble on the Gambit/Rogue front. Thank goodness because that relationship is so stagnant, theres green stuff floating on top.

And Chris Claremont is just phoning in boring stories in every book he writes.

Only Astonishing delivers and it's woefully late all the time. I think issue 10 came out like 4 months ago.

Anyone else out there thinking the whole of X-Men should be put back to 3 books a month? I don't know what's worse, only getting one Astonishing every 3 months, or getting 3 boring Uncannies EVERY month!!!!!! There was no reason to start "Astonishing" anyhow, they should have put Whedon on Uncanny.

Well in some very good news, I got my reports back from CGC. First of all, my X-Men #1 got a straight "Fine", ranking 6.0. I was only slightly miffed by this, as I'd been hoping for 6.5. Unrestored though, so that's quite a relief.

Now for the dillies! My brother called with the numbers for the 94 and the GS #1 - both are 9.4s!!!! The GS #1 got "white pages" and the 94 got the old standby "off white to white pages".

All in all, I think I'm ahead financially, even though I'd be stuck at a loss selling the #1 on it's own. It's not like I'd ever be able to part with them anyhow.

Very cool news, jj! You're a lucky enough as it is even have those books.

Astonishing came to its astonishing conclusion. Scott gives Charlie X the scolding of a lifetime. That alone was worth the $3. But then we find out Emma's been a bitch (or has she?)this whole time and the Hellfire Club is back!! Too bad we gotta wait however many fuckin' months before 13 hits the stands.

I htough Astonishing #12 was rather sub par, compared to most of the other 11.
It seemed more like a prologue to the next story, rather than a completion to the current story.

A good set up job, comic-wise, can be as good as a good fluff-job pornwise.

Well I finally picked up my comics (after 3 months of letting them collect dust). Is Whedon staying on after #12?

Yeah, he's going to do another year (maybe more, IIRC), but apparently it'll be a while before #13 is released.

Shocker. The whole "Danger" storyline really didn't do anything for me, though I do like the way he writes the characters.

Anyone else get duped into buying Giant Size X-Men #3? The original story was a non-event, as was the art - a sad surprise